Support of real-time and near real-time video can come at a significant cost to wireless network resources, particularly if the video is delay intolerant or is of high quality. For instance, in a wireless cellular network, cell usability may be directly affected by the resolution and quality of video traversing the radio links of the network (i.e., the links associated with the base stations of the wireless network). In other words, high quality may be provided at the expense of link budget. Similarly, high bit rates that may be consumed by streaming video can directly affect the number of customers that can be supported by a particular base station.
The emerging trend of virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) is likely to exacerbate the load on wireless networks, as AR/VR devices can be particularly bandwidth intensive. It is thus desirable to minimize the impact of high bandwidth devices on the cellular wireless network. The radio access network (RAN) portion of a wireless network, in particular, is typically the limiting factor network capacity. Accordingly, it would be desirable, when using high bandwidth applications, to maximize efficiency of the RAN.